This access has sparked fears aboutcybersecurity vulnerabilitiesandprivacy violations.
However, evidence has emerged that DOGE personnelsimultaneously hold positionswith at least one of Musks companies.
At the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX employeeshave government email addresses.
New Yorkers Hold Tesla Protest Against President Trump And Elon Musk© Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
This dual employment creates a conduit for federal data to potentially be siphoned to Musk-owned enterprises, including xAI.
The companys latest Grok AI chatbot modelconspicuously refuses to give a clear denialabout using such data.
This isnt merely more data itsfundamentally different data.
Elon Musk’s xAI company is well financed.
For example,Medicare recordsreveal health care choices and outcomes.
IRS and Treasury data reveal financial decisions and long-term impacts.
And federal employment and education statistics reveal education paths and career trajectories.
What makes this data particularly valuable for AI training is itslongitudinal nature and reliability.
Every Social Security payment, Medicare claim and federal grant creates a verified data point about real-world behavior.
This data exists nowhere else with such breadth and authenticity in the U.S.
Most critically, government databasestrack entire populations over time, not just digitally active users.
They include people who never use social media, dont shop online, or actively avoid digital services.
Government data could change this equation.
For companies seeking to build next-generation AI systems, access to this data would create an almost insurmountable advantage.
Such systems could fundamentally transform and potentially control how people understand and manage complex societal systems.
Medicare and Medicaid databasescontain records of treatments,outcomesand costs across diverse populations over decades.
Treasury data representsperhaps the most valuable prize.
Government financial databases contain granular details about how money flows through the economy.
An AI company with access to this data coulddevelop extraordinary capabilitiesfor economic forecasting and market prediction.
The power lies in the potentialinterconnectedness of this data.
A private company with exclusive access would gain unique insight into the physical and economic arteries of American society.
The threat of a private company accessing government data transcends individual privacy concerns.
The threat is AI systems that leverage government data to influence society, including electoral outcomes.
If not, Americans should prepare to become digital subjects rather than human citizens.
Allison Stanger, Distinguished Endowed Professor,Middlebury
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license.
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